Gates, Jobs Spar but Mostly Hug

Everyone knows that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs haven’t exactly been buddies over the last 30 years. Yes, they were early partners. And yes, Microsoft helped keep Apple from going under a decade ago when Jobs returned as CEO. But much of their other interactions over the last three decades have been that of two viciously competitive rivals. They’ve sued each other, called each other names – and they are still at it. Most recently, Gates has publicly complained about Apple’s famously nasty "I’m a Mac and I’m a PC" TV ads.

So many in tech land wanted fireworks as the pair took the stage for the first time in at least a decade at the Wall Street Journal D conference in Carlsbad, CA. And they almost got them in response to a question about the TV ads. Jobs cheekily said "The art of the commercials is not to be mean but for the guys to like each other." It elicited a look from Gates that could have melted … well, an IPOD.

But for the rest of the 90 minute interview conducted by Walt
Mossberg and Kara Swisher, the pair were not only civil but occasionally admiring of each other. And if you think about it, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Anything less would have seemed petty. Their rivalry has changed the world for the good in ways too numerous to list and made both of them so rich it’s really not worth keeping track. Yes,
Jobs is only about a tenth as wealthy as Gates. I’m sure it keeps him up nights that he’s only got a few billion dollars instead of 50 plus billion.

For anyone interested in the history of Silicon Valley there were two choice nuggets:

* Apple and Microsoft were such close partners in the 1970s that when Jobs needed an operating system for the Apple II, he paid $31,000 for Gates’ version of Basic over his partner Steve Wozniak’s version. Jobs said that he begged Woz to write the software to deal with a so-called floating decimal point, and when he didn’t, he partnered with Gates. "What people forget is that Microsoft wasn’t in the applications business back then. (They just did the operating system) Lotus was the dominant application provider," Jobs said.

* At one point two or three years ago, Microsoft’s Xbox team had the largest order of Macs in existence. Indeed, right when Apple was making the decision to replace its Motorola processors with Intel chips, Microsoft was moving quickly to adopt the Motorola chip design for Xbox. "We never ran an ad about that," Jobs said with a smile, prompting Gates to retort "Steve is SO known for his restraint."

Both predictably but convincingly said software like Windows, Office, and OS X were hardly obsolete – that consumers and businesses would want the power of client software sometimes and the power of running software in a browser a la Google applications at other times.

Ultimately, the two made it clear that despite their differences they have deep respect for each other. Jobs credited Gates with inventing the software industry. "Bill created a software company before anyone knew what a software company was. Gates credited Jobs with being a brilliant product designer: "I’d give a lot to have Steve’s taste."

And both in their own ways made it clear that they keenly understood how much time had passed. "It’s nice to have had someone stick around all these years – someone who has seen the same waves of change I have," Gates said. Jobs countered with a line from a Beatles song "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

The audience of 500, which included many who have been a part of Gates’ and Jobs’ 30 year journey, like Mitch Kapor, who founded Lotus, gave the two a standing ovation.

Update: Gizmodo has the live blog here and a great flashback to "Pirates of Silicon Valley" here